Sunday, April 15, 2012

When it comes to travel photography, there was always a soft spot in my heart for the Konica Minolta A1 and A2 bridge cameras. These came out before the legendary KM 7D, and I used the A1 for half of my China blog. By today's standards the image quality falls short for all but the lowest ISOs, but as far as form factor and function goes, these cameras had a certain gem quality to them. The user interface was clearly designed by a photographer (as opposed to a marketing team); they had a real wide angle lens (most bridge cameras of the time didn't) and thankfully they had a manual zoom ring (as opposed to the motorized kind that only drained the batteries and offered no real benefit). It shot movies, it had a built-in intervolometer, and it was my first exposure (no pun intended) to the promise of the electronic viewfinder.Fast forward to about three weeks ago, when my NEX-7 and kit lens FINALLY arrived. Imagine - all the quality of the A77 without the weight or volume!